Pyritic smelting.



J. T. GARRIGK.

PYRITIC SMELTING.

APPLICATION FILED MAY 26. 1908. y

912,540. Patented Feb. 16, 1909.

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- charge owever -time choke the l .UNITED STATES PATENT OFFICE.

JAMES TAYLORA CARRIGK, OF .IOHANNESBRG, TRANSVAAL, ASSIGNR OF ONE-HALF TO BASIII, STUART PATTISON,

OF JOHANNESBURG, TRANSVAAL.

PYRITIC SM'ELTING.

Specification of Letters Patent.

Patented Feb. 1e, 1909.

Application med nay 2s, 190s. serial No. 435,067.

RI'CK,l geologist, a subjectof the King of Great 4Britain, residing at the New Club, Johannesbur Transvaal, have invented new and' useful Improvements iu Pyritic Smel'ting,'pof which the following is a specificatlon.

In attempting to smelt, by pyritic methods, certain classes of copper ,or copper nickel ores which are otherwise suitable for the urpose, difficulty is experienced owing `to t ev refractory nature of certain constituents of the ore, among the most important of which are certain -coarsely crystalline feldspars. Such material is in a high degree chemically inert and attains no more than a plastic condition at the highest temperature .ordinarily attainable in a pyritic furnace, in

which condition it is inca able of readily enteringjupon the chemica changes necessary for its conversion into slag, but on the contrary it forms accretions which in a short furnace.

The present invention is directed to overcomingy this difficulty and thereby enabling refractoryores to be successfully smelted pyritically.

To this end the inventionconsists, broadly speaking, in-producing in the furnace, at the base of the' focus, a restricted zone of higher temperature than the rest of the furnace, .such that in coming into contact with it, the infusible. ore constituent becomes liquefied, Whenit is at once/acted upon by the other parts of the charge and thereby reduced to rea y fusible slag. Such zone is advisably as narrow as possible consistently with the total li uefaction of the ore, since any considerablle increase in the total heat of the furnace is not aimed at by this invention, nor would it as a rule be desirable.

' The term .'I`o`cu s is intended in this peciiication to indicate the region of active y45 ag formation, and may be generally said to extend from about-3 feet above the. twyers down to the twyer level. 'A paratus for carrying out the invention is illiistrated in the accompanying drawings, of which-- Figure I is-an ideal vertical section of the lower art of a yrit'ic furnace' in' action, the

Ibeing omitted' for the sake of clearness, and Fig. II is a correspondinghorizontal section upon the plane A- A Fig.' I.

of the ore at this oint; but in the case of ther refractory ores a ove referred to, the partially fused material continually precipitates upon the boshes and chokes the slits so bringing the action of the furnace to a standstill.

In the furnace illustrated the special zone of intense temperature is formed immediatel)r below the level of the air blasts e, by introducing flame blasts f through a special series of twyers g. The combustible may be any suitable gaseous or vaporous fuel and is introduced-together with the requisite quantity ofair for its combustion so that not only is the greatest possible temperature of combustion attained, but the combustion products being substantially neutral have no effect on the smelting process beyond diluting the furnace gases, and supplying some additional heat capable of assisting in the dissociation and smelting of the raw suliid in the upper part of the furnace. The flame twyers g may conveniently be disposed intermediate of the air twyers so that the iiame is injected into the Widest parts of the Bessemer slits It is recognized that with a view to over? coming the difficulties mentioned," the eX- periment has been tried of introduclng pe- ,troleum vapor through the ordinary air twyers.

In that case however the combustion of the petroleum was caused to take place in the presence of the overwhelmmg mass of air necessary for the combustlon of the ore and concentrationof the added heat Was therefore impossible. The introduction of hot blast moreover was unsuccessful since the necessarily low intensity and relatively small amount of the additional heat thereby introduced, was sufficient to roduce the concentrated heat Zone Contemp ated by the present invention: the ultimate effect being in fact simply to elevate the center of the focus and thus7 if anything, to aggravate the difficulty l at the base of the focus. It is by reason of vthese considerations that the flame blasts in thepresent intention are arranged inst sub iciently below' the regular air blasts, for' the combustion' ofthe fomer to be completed before they mingle-With the air blasts.

That l Clainris y 1. In pyritic smelting, the )recess of producing in the furnace at the base of 'che focus region el' slag formation, a, restricted zone having' a temperature higher than that of the rest of the furnace by injecting combustible at'that point and effecting its combustion Within the furnace, for the purpose stated.

2. ln pyrtiesmelting, the process of injocting' llame blzists to produc-e at the base of the loeus 1'eg1on of slag fornmtlon a. restrlcted n ammo zone of higher temperature than `lw rvs! nl to give off substantially nvm' ml vox'nhnsliun products. l

3. In a pyltc furnace, means to produce. flame blasts arranged immediati-l). lwlow the regular air twyprs and n'efernu; mm 1 =\:-li' nte thereof, substantial y as and for 1h purpose described.

In testimony whereof l have signml nl) name to this specification in tluA gvrvwnw o! two subscribing Witnesses. y

JAMES TAYLOR (H lllfl'.

Witnesses: t

J. WARREN DENNNG. WEALEY E. JOHN.

the f.urnaeesaid thune 'blasts hein; surh s e 

